The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-08-13
The Railway of the Future.

Twenty years ago one OF Ine pest
authorities on railroads and locomo-
tiyes wrote as follows: 80 that it
is safe no railway speed can be too
high even were it three hundred
miles per hour" With our present
means of propulsion we cannot get
beyond about sixty miles per hour.
The largest proportion of resistance
upon level increases as the square |
of the speed, and at double speed the
resistance is quadrupIe, and has to be
overcome in half the time. Thus
taking the results of Mr.. d. X.
Clark's rule for the gross resistance
per ton of the engine, tender and
train 1--WE have found his rule very
closely confirmed by indicator dia-
grams, which have been taken at
speeds of from ten to fifty miles per
hour, we would have a resistance on
level of % 6 pounds per ton at fifty
miles per hour, while at one hundred
miles per hour it would be increased
to &c 80 pounds.
The rule is to square the speed in
miles an hour, divided by Ill and
add lbs, to the quOtient, If loco
motive and train weighed 100 tons,
300.h horse power would be. required
to run so miles per hour, while to
run 100 miles per hour about 1,770
horse power be necessary. No loco
motive has ever been built that could
exert more than one-half of that
power, and these are engines which,
with their tender, weigh 80 tons, and
even if locomotive could be built
to make sucE speed, road beds, rails
and bridges would have to be very
much strengthened and heavier to
withstand the additional weight of
the locomotive running at such an
increased velocity, AS it is, we put
from one to two tons Of machinery in
motion for every passenger carried on
our fast trains, and if the speed were
increased 100 miles per hour the ma
chinery dead weight) that would
necessarily be put in to accomplish it
r would amount to about five tons to
every passenger of $50 pounds, This
dead weight, about fifty per cent, is
gotten rid of by the Pneumatic Sys-
TEN. Speed of from 100 to $50 miles
an hour is not too high for the re-
quirements of long passenger traffic,
though it can never be attained by
the motive power now in use while
the desire of the present is that
freight traffic should be at least as
fast as present passenger trains.
The traction power of the locOmo-
tives drawing the fast trains Of the
Pennsylvania and Bound Brook
routes between Philadelphia and Jer-
sey City amounts to between 500 and
and 600 horsepower, and according
, ing to the report of the Pennsylvania
;, Railroad for 1886 there are % passen-
, ger trains each way, with an average
of five cars to each train, and the av-
+ erage weight of locomotive and train
p alone is about 100000 pounds, while
| the passengers and baggage carried
, by them only weighs $4,000 pounds,
thus showing six pounds of loss car
ried to every one of gain, and that,
, too, at an average speed of only forty
miles per hour, requiring the devel.
!, opement Of about 800 horsepower
per hour. The coal consumed as per
, report averages y pounds per mile,
q or four tons each way. at a cost OF
y about $50 for two and one half hour
;, run. The first consideration in NOV.
! ing passengers at a high speed is how
to diminish to the utmost the dead
weight of the train in which they are
to be carried. Substitute the Pneu-
: matte Tube for the locomotive and
, ninety per cent of the wasted power
- necessary to draw it is saved and the
- cars then need not be near so heavy.
, A passenger is parcel $50 far as
power to draw him is concerned) oil
. an average weight of $50 pounds, and
, the problem really is how to carry
o this parcel or number of them with
as little else as possible. The power
required to overcome the resistance
due to the mere weight of such par.
f Gel at a speed of so miles per hour
9 THE shortest distance between Phila.
delphia and Jersey City as per LIE.
vans air line {see Journal of the
0 Franklin Institute May, 1882 on 8
, level is but 0 81 of a horse power
hence 81 horse power would suffice
for 100 passengers with consump.
= ton of $50 pounds of coal. Now as.
: Stunning that we use the same weight
cars as are now used to transport 10C
= persons. $4,000 pounds would be the
, additional weight which would by
the Pneumatic System require 1874